1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus such as a printer capable of designating the capacity of the memory to be used, a memory control method and a memory medium therefor.
The present invention also relates to an output device such as a printer, for generating output data and outputting such data based on input data entered from an external equipment such as a host computer, a memory control method and a memory medium therefor.
2. Related Background Art
The memory size to be used in an information processing apparatus such as a printer has been designated by a command from a host computer or from a panel of the information processing apparatus.
In the conventional information processing apparatus, however, in a case where the available memory capacity is increased by the connection of an extended memory (for example RAM), the user has been unable to easily control the memory resource according to the desired application.
The printer is usually provided with a PDL (Page Description Language) analyzing program (emulation program) for generating output data by analyzing printer languages of plural different command systems.
The PDL analyzing programs can be classified into those characterized in the advanced graphics function as represented by PostScript (trade name) and those characterized by their high-speed processing function, as represented by LIPS (trade name) or PCL (trade name).
In general, the user determines the PDL of the printer according to the purpose of his application, the host computer used and the environment of the network.
In such a situation, it has become desirable to utilize plural page description languages in a single printer, instead of utilizing such plural languages in plural printers, and such requirement has been met by a technology called multi-PDL emulation.
Such technology is generally realized by taking a certain page description language as the base and emulating other languages on such base technology.
In such multi PDL emulation, as the hardware for a certain page description language is used for emulating other languages, it is difficult to regulate, among plural page description languages, the allocation of various resources, particularly that of the band raster memory.
More specifically, in a case where a system optimized for a page description language "A" is used for another page description language "B", the allocation of the resource (band raster memory) in such language "B" is not necessarily optimum in comparison with that in the language "A".
Also, the allocation of the optimum raster memory for banding varies, in the case of an extension of the memory capacity, according to the presence of two-side printing control, the internal raster resolution for the printing process, and the nature of the data (principally image or characters) within the page description language.
In a common memory configuration (wherein a full-memory area can be selected in the raster memory and the object memory (intermediate buffer)), the magnitude of the required or optimum raster memory generally satisfies the following relations:
extension memory added&gt;standard memory PA1 two-side printing control present&gt;two-side printing control absent PA1 low printing resolution&gt;high printing resolution PA1 data principally composed of characters&gt;data principally composed of image
Also the page description language is not necessarily independent of the resolution but may have a resolution optimum for the rendering process (drawing process for generating output data from the intermediate data).
For such varied requirements, it has conventionally been not possible to flexibly secure the band raster memory and the object memory for each job, and initialization of the printer has therefore been necessary.
Also, in such multi-PDL emulation mentioned above, since the configuration for a given PDL is used for other languages, the allocation of resources such as memory is not adequately adjusted among the plural page description languages.
More specifically, in a case where a system optimized for a page description language "A" is used for another page description language "B", the resource allocation in such language "B" is not necessary optimum in comparison with that in the language "A".
Also, even in data processing in the PDL "A", the optimum memory allocation varies between a job "C" for principally processing images and a job "D" for principally processing line images, but the memory allocation in the current technology is already encoded in the page description language and cannot be dynamically changed.